Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1948752 in Books
• Published on: 2003-11-01
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 274 pages

Synopsis
This is a fascinating and faithful account of President Kennedy's 31/2 day visit to Ireland in late June of 1963. Jim Carroll provides yet another window into the Kennedy legacy, creating a complex portrait of the man and the presidency. Exhaustively researched, the book and photos tell a memorable tale of the president's homecoming to a people and land long etched in his heart and at last on the verge of taking their place in the modern world's politics and economy. It is a day-by-day, hour-by-hour look at the places JFK visited; the people he met luminaries and average Irish citizens alike; the throngs who lined the roads to catch a glimpse of him or gathered to hear him speak; and the events that crowded his schedule. He touched a nation, and it touched him, in part because they shared a history of perseverance and adversity. Indeed, the trip represented the culmination of his historic triumph in the election of an Irish Catholic as president of a country where people could still remember store signs warning, 'Irish Need Not Apply'. His brief sojourn to Ireland revealed more of the private and spontaneous John F Kennedy than ever before seen in public. Historian Arthur Schlesinger wrote, "I imagine that [Kennedy] was never easier, happier, more involved and detached, more complexly himself than in the days of his Ireland visit". Told with the help and recollections of many present during the trip, including aides, family, and friends, Carroll captures just such a Kennedy in this remarkable new book.